Miscellanies. 211 



the following extract relating to the discovery of this "tube fulminaire." 

 On the 13th of June, 1841, at 5, P. M., a storm arose up the course of 

 the Elbe, passing over the sand hills which are covered with vineyards, 

 on the right bank of that river, near the village of Loschwitz, one league 

 from Dresden. Believing the lightning to have struck the pavilion in 

 which Schiller wrote his Don Carlos, they ran to the top of the hill ; 

 but fifty steps before arriving at this building, a split support of a vine 

 indicated that lightning had struck here. M. Fiedler gave notice to the 

 proprietor of the vineyard, remarking with surprise the near proximity 

 of a plum tree, which he supposed from its height would have sooner 

 attracted the electric fluid. Be that as it may, on tracing the direction 

 of the fulgurite, they saw that it forced itself into the earth at an incli- 

 nation of 66° ; it met some small roots of the plum, which though con- 

 taining more moisture than the surrounding gravel, and running in near- 

 ly the same direction with the electric spark, (as could be seen in the 

 specimen before the Academy,) were only blackened in the parts sur- 

 rounded by the tube and immediately contiguous — the heat, though 

 enormous, having passed too suddenly to carbonize the wood. At one 

 metre from the upper part, the fulgurite is divided into three long 

 branches, each about sixty-five centimetres. It was stated on the spot, 

 that these roots disappear in a bed of very moist argillaceous and fer- 

 ruginous sand. — Comptes Rendus, Slst July, 1843. 



7. Upon the deposit of Gold recently discovered in the Ural* — 

 The mass of gold recently discovered in the Ural is the largest known 

 in the whole world. It was found in the gold-bearing sands of Miask 

 in the district of Zlatooust, not far from the celebrated mines of Tzar- 

 evo Nikola? fsk, and of Tzarevo Alexandrofsk in the southern Ural. 

 These two mines which you have visited with so much interest, have 

 already yielded as you are aware nearly 400 " pouds" of gold (6552 

 kil.) equal to about 17,544*5 lbs., and more than once very remarkable 

 masses have been collected there. Thus in 1825 they found there the 

 specimen weighing 24 phounds, 68 zolotniks (10 kil. 118,) about 27-017 

 lbs. However, these mines beginning to be exhausted, they were com- 

 pelled to make explorations near the course of the river Tachkou-Tar- 

 ganka, which soon led to the discovery of a bed of gold-bearing sands 

 of very great richness, but within very narrow limits. This bed once 

 found, they turned off the stream, which had served for washing the 

 sands, up the whole length of this river, and commenced their exam- 

 inations in the dry bed of the stream. Their success was complete. 



* Extract of a letter from M. de Kokcharoff, officer of the Royal Mining Com- 

 pany, to M. de Humboldt. Translated from the Annales des Mines, 4th series, 

 tome 3, liv. 1, p. 51, 1843. 



